Canadian Vietnam Veterans: Canadian Government Involvement

Through the Canada-United States Defence Producton Sharing Agreements, industry in Canada furnished som $2.47 billion worth of war material to the U.S. between 1965 and 1973. The records of the agreement do not provide, however, a comprehensive picture of Canadian arms sales to the U.S. In 1972, for instance, when the figure for sales under the agreements was $175.0 million, Pentagon sources indicate that U.S. military procurement in Canada totalled at least $226.0 million. The increase in U.S. purchases in Canada coincide with the escalation of the Vietnam War; in 1965, purchases in Canada jumped 55.6 per cent. "Peace in Vietnam, if and when it comes, would hit Canadian aerospace factories hard," declared David Golden, president of the Air Industries Association, of the Financial Post in September 1967. "Right now the demand for some items by the U.S. military is so acute that competitive pricing takes second place to fast production capabilities

On the basis of an official Pentagon survey of contracts worth $200,000 or more for the years 1968-74, it appears that at least 37.5 per cent of all Canadian defence sales ($447,023,000) consisted of materials destined for the Southeast Asia theatre. Decoding Pentagon and other confidential sources determines that each of the Canadian products in the accompanying list were contracted for by the U.S. and shipped to the Indochinese war theatre.

Canadian Products Destined for Vietnam


A-6A Intruder bomber metal bonded components    F-4 weapons release computer

A-7 navigational system                         F-4 weapons release system

A-7A map display system                         F-5 fuel cells

aircraft engines, gasoline                      F-5 wing mounted fuel tanks

aircraft gunnery fire control components        fibreglass bazooka barrels

aircraft landing gear components                flight instruments

aircraft launching equipment                    4.3 inch shells

airframe structural components                  fuses and primers

ammunition 30-125mm                             gas reciprocating engines

antenna waveguides		                      gas turbines and jet engines

anti-personel grenades	                     gear boxes

armor, personnel			               generators

artillery propellants			        green berets

Beaver, Caribou, and other aircraft	         helicopter landing and security systems

bomb bays				               helicopter rotor blades

boots 			                            helicopter simulator

cartridge casses and bomb bodies	         helicopter transmission

chemical defoliants			                hydraulics for F-111

communication equiptment		                M53 gun sights

crane and shovel attachments		         maintenance of aircraft engines

crash position indicator		                mecury batteries

demolitian materials			         modification and rebuilding of aircraft

Doppler navigational system		         morter casts

electrical and electronic parts		         napalm

F-4 Rolls Royce engines			         octral bursting agent

Otter landing gear			               optical sighting and ranging equiptment

passenger motor vehicles	                     remote vapour detection devices

pipes and tubes				        rocket warheads

plastic personnel ground burst mines	        rubber fuel tanks

power conversion equiptment		        rye whiskey

PT6 twin engine for Beech King		        smoke gernades, flares, and pyrotechnics

prefabricated buildings			        special purpose clothing

radar equiptment airborne	                     sweep wing actuator for F-111

radio and TV communication equiptment	        TNT

radio navigation equiptment airborne	        tires and tubes, pneumatic

radio relay sets			               trucks and truck tractors

radio TV equiptment except airborne	        underwater sound equiptment

bulk explosives